Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), originally described in 1956, is a unique familial, chronic renal disease encountered with a high-prevalence rate in Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most prominent features of the disease are its endemic nature, long-incubation period, familial clustering of the disease and an unusually high incidence of associated upper uroth...

Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) is a chronic tubulointerstitial disease of unknown etiology. The main morphological feature is interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy with absence of inflammatory infiltration. The pathogenesis of BEN is also obscure. Since tubular epithelial cells in the early phase of disease express vimentin as mesenchymal marker in addition to cytokeratin, we could specul...

Herbs are usually considered as inherently harmless products. Nonetheless, various renal injuries have been reported in association with several herbs. The best-known herb-induced chronic kidney disease is aristolochic acid nephropathy. Aristolochic acid is found in Chinese slim herbs. Balkan endemic nephropathy is nowadays considered as an aristolochic acid nephropathy. Plants of Aristolochiac...

Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) is a human chronic tubulointerstitial renal disease that occurs in rural areas of some Balkan countries. The disease is insidious and fatal, and mostly affects persons in their sixties or seventies. BEN areas have unusually high rates of otherwise rare upper urinary tract tumors (UTT). Since extensive production of reactive oxygen species leading to oxidative st...

ndemic Balkan nephropathy (EBN), a disease restricted to three Balkan countries (Bulgaria, Rumania, and Yugoslavia), is characterized by a progressive shrinking of the kidneys and, in some cases, tumors in the proximal regions of the urinary tract (1,2). A coronavirus was reported to be involved in the etiology of the disease, mostly on the basis of the isolation of a virus in cultures of kidne...

RENAL INTERSTITIAL FIBROSIS IS A MAJOR FEATURE OF BALKAN ENDEMIC NEPHROPATHY (BEN) G. A. Müller, M. Zeisberg, F Strutz Dept. of Nephrology & Rheumatology, Georg-August Universität Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany Balkan Nephropathy is a common renal disease in the Balkan region which often leads to endstage renal failure. The pathogenesis of this disease is still unknown, however, the pathwa...